Fear of the Dark
by Ebony Dagger
Summary: A collaberation completed half by Leolexosdarkfold. A couple who fall into Silent Hill without even realising what's happened...that is, until they start being attacked by creatures who just aren't quite human. Links to Alex's POV included.
1. Alone

Like I said in the summary, this is a collaboration fanfiction written with Leolexosdarkfold, and links will be written at the bottom of every chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Silent Hill

* * *

Fire doesn't cleanse, it blackens.

I smiled a little as Alex glanced at me over the numerous shopping bags draped liberally around his gangly figure, a long-suffering expression twisting his features. I ruffled his too-long hair, mentally noting that I needed to organise a haircut for him as soon as possible. I suppose a fringe trailing over your eyes is acceptable, but _not_ when it's well on its way to your lips.

Glancing at the shopping bags, a thought struck me, "You could do with getting some new clothes for yourself while you're at it, you know."

His lips pouted, "Why? There's nothing wrong with these. Besides, I think I got enough clothes for both of us."

I raised an eyebrow, "Sure, if you're into that kind of thing."

I counted seconds until the penny dropped. When it did his face changed completely, an apologetic expression pervading it as he realised my meaning, "Oh, Oh! No, that's... that's not what I meant. Look... if it really bothers you that much, wait here, I'll go take a look in that place, see if there's anything that won't ruin my street cred."

I tried not to smirk as I said, "You've got to be kidding me."

I'm entirely serious." I could see a smile attempting to worm its way onto his lips, and admired him for his restraint as he continued without a snigger, "I'm actually quite the hit with the kids around these parts." A quote from one of his many westerns, I was sure.

"Look after the bags; it'd be a shame if we lost all of _your _clothes." I stuck my tongue out at his retreating back and juggled with the heavy bags for a few moments before I finally caught my balance enough to fumble inside the tiny string pouch that hung at my hip and retrieve my ever present iPod. I glanced at the shop Alex had walked into and wrinkled my nose; wouldn't necessarily been my first choice. Dirty and dilapidated, there was no sign outside and the lighting inside was so dim that until I had a hand free to clean my glasses; I wouldn't be able to see what it sold anyway.

I glanced down at the bags in my hands and grimaced; Alex assumed that all women loved shopping, but he hadn't quite cottoned on to the fact that I abhorred clothes shopping. To be fair, most of the heavier bags were books, for my psychology course and to feed both of our literary addictions. The only reason I had been forced to visit somewhere other than the bookshops and the library was because I had glanced into my wardrobe and realised that I officially had only three or four shirts fit to wear to work, and a total of two pairs of black trousers. I had glanced into Alex's wardrobe at the same time, I recalled, and my wardrobe wasn't the only one in grave peril. A couple of pairs of jeans, a few shirts, most of them in dire need of repair... we were a terrible pair for that. Even today, though the shirt he wore was clean, the shoes were beyond repair and not only did his jeans have no knees, they had been washed so many times that they had stretched out and it was difficult to identify what item of clothing they were attempting to imitate.

I sighed and yawned a little. I wanted to stretch, but knowing my luck, the bags would overbalance me and I'd end up turning turtle, unable to regain my footing. Nope, not a good idea.

It had been quite a while since Alex had left actually. I would have expected him to be in and out of the shop in a few seconds, claiming that there was nothing to his taste. Although, I reflected with a grimace, it was probably the fact that he knew I'd drag him around every men's clothes shop in the country until he found something suitable, so he was attempting to find something to placate me.

Shoving my hair out of my eyes, I chewed my lip and considered going into the shop to see if Alex had managed to get himself locked in a changing room or something, then said aloud to myself, "He's a big boy now, he can handle himself."

So I settled down on the floor near the shop entrance, fully aware that I looked like a homeless person with my hair in my eyes and my black t-shirt bearing the slogan _Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes_.

After another century or so (maybe twenty minutes), I stood with difficulty, adjusted the bags on my shoulders and walked into the dimly lit shop. My first reaction was one of disgust; it smelled like a dirty washing basket. Glancing around, I saw that all the clothes were on coat hangers but many of them were held on by a sleeve and trailing on the floor, which creaked uneasily as I placed my feet and stuck to the bottoms of my shoes as I walked. I chewed my lip harder, and then winced as the skin broke. Both hands occupied, I had no choice but to leave the trail of blood to trickle down my chin. Gathering my courage, I glanced around for a store-owner behind the desk. Finding none, I raised my voice so it would carry through the shop, "Alex!"

I heard movement from the back of the shop. Ignoring my sense of caution that rose automatically from the sound, I dropped the bags on the floor and raced towards it, preparing to scold him soundly for scaring me like this. At the back of the shop I found a couple of small cubicles, presumably changing rooms.

"Alex?" my voice cracked and quavered slightly, and I cursed myself for being so stupid. It was a clothes store for goodness' sake; what could happen in a clothes store in broad daylight?

Wiping my mouth to clear the flaking blood away, I knocked tentatively on the first cubicle door.

No answer.

I swiped my sweaty hands on my jeans and tried the second.

Finally there was an answer, a rough voice shouting, "Yeah man, I'll be out in a sec. Hey, did I tell y'about me lad—"

I interrupted him quickly, "It's not Alex, and he isn't out here. Do you know where he is?"

Obviously he didn't, if he thought I was Alex, but it was worth a try.

The man's voice came through and this time I recognised it, even laden as it was with suspicion, "What d'you mean, he ain't there, he was there a second ago. Who the hell're you, 'nyways?"

"Hey John, it's—" I gritted my teeth, having always despised his little nickname for me, "—it's Kitty-Kat, from across the road. We moved to Virginia last, year, remember?"

"God yeah. Little Kitty-Kat, Alex's sweetie, huh? How's it going wi' you two then?"

I rolled my eyes but managed to keep my tone pleasant as I said, "We're fine thank you, John, but right now we need to find Alex."

Suddenly there was a choking noise from behind the door, like a gargling sound, but thick and meaty. The first thing that came to mind was gargling with internal organs. I immediately regretted that thought when a choked, muffled shriek floated through the thin door.

I hammered on the door as hard as I could, "John! What's going on? Are you all right?"

The gargling subsided momentarily and then there was the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the floor.

"Damnit!" I swore, pounding on the door, "John!"

A dead silence pervaded the room around me, the silence of a library yet with the atmosphere of a morgue. Taking a few steps back, I surveyed the small anteroom around me which contained the cubicles. A thick pipe swung low from the ceiling, about the right height for me to swing from. Wondering if it would take my weight, I took a quick breath and leaped at it.

It held.

Dropping to the floor once again, I took a good run up, grabbed the pipe, and used my momentum to kick the door of John's cubicle as hard as I could with both feet. I lost my grip on the pipe and fell painfully to the floor, bruising my coccyx, but the door was open. Standing gingerly, I winced and rubbed my back, but dutifully walked forward to see what had happened to John.

My eyes watered from the gut-wrenching smell floating out from the cubicle and I covered my mouth and nose in an ineffective attempt to lessen the odour. I glanced cautiously into the cubicle and recoiled immediately, just getting an impression of mangled flesh and puddles of blood, more blood than it seemed possible to have in one body. Preparing myself once again, gripped by a morbid curiosity, I glanced carefully in once again and this time refused my body's automatic reaction to run and get out of the shop.

Averting my eyes from the carcass lying on the floor, I noticed a hole in the wall. Stepping in to the cubicle, I reached out to touch the edges. The stone wall seemed to have been _melted_ somehow, because the sides were smooth not as though they had been cut, as though the hole had been there for years and the sides had simply worn down. I found my body leaning forward, propelled towards the hole by some subconscious feeling, and yanked myself back. Clambering through the hole in the wall when a corpse had just appeared in front of me was not a good idea. Forcing my rebellious body out of the cubicle, I went to stand in the main shop and decided that first I would call Alex, then the police.

Well that was the plan.

I got to the middle of the shop, where I thought I had left my bags, when I realised that not only were they not there, the shop was completely empty, devoid of life. I checked my phone, full battery and reception. Sighing with relief, I held one on speed dial and called Alex. The dial tone started, then was drowned out by soft, whispering static. I frowned; this phone had served me perfectly for almost five years, now was not the time for it to die.

Flipping it over and taking the battery out, I used the reliable IT genius technique of 'turn it off and then on again and it will work'. But it didn't.

Instead, when I dialled nine one one, the static exploded into being again before I had even pressed the call button. I felt myself blanch white as I looked instinctively at the hole.

Something seemed to be calling me to it now, the pull growing ever stronger, and before I knew what had happened, I was on my knees on front of the hole, which started oozing a rust-red liquid. Instinctively, I knew it was blood, and when I felt the knees of my jeans grow damp, I looked down to see that I was kneeling in the centre of John's unrecognisable remains. Instead of scrambling away from it, it was as though my body was possessed and slowly, so slowly, my hands reached out of their own accord and gripped the edge of the hole, pulling my body inexorably onwards.

A flash of raw red walls, like the innards of some great predator and then...

...Darkness.

Link to Leolexosdarfold's POV:

http:/(remove)/www.(remove)fanfiction(remove).net/s(remove)/6194381/1/


	2. Pain

You promised you'd take me there again someday...but you never did

* * *

I fell for what seemed like forever, but no time at all. Oxymoronic, I know, but since my ears were ringing and whatever I'd landed on was not particularly comfortable, I thought I was entitled to a little bit of screwed-up thinking. The complete darkness pressed in on me, disorientating me completely. Up or down? I couldn't be sure, and how much time had passed was also a mystery. When I finally managed to settle my head and stomach enough for them to stop roiling uncontrollably, I patted around whatever I was sitting on and discovered it to be soft and seemingly stretched thin. Then I realised that was what it reminded me of – skin.

I yelped and jumped to my feet, scrubbing my hands on my jeans. The surface bounced slightly and I wonder suddenly if it was still attached to an animal, some giant creature that was going to eat me, or worse, some other monster that had stretched this skin across whatever it was I was sitting on. I felt around to try and find walls or edges or anything that could help me orientate myself. Hah, on the furthest edges of my reach, my fingertips touched solid stone leading up from the ledge I must have been sitting on. I almost loosed a shout of triumph, and then common sense snapped my jaw shut to silence me before I brought whatever was lurking in the darkness down on my head.

I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled towards the wall, groping blindly ahead with one hand. When my fingers made contact with the hard surface, the slight clacking sound my nails made against it made me jump; it seemed to echo throughout a cavernous space. Standing up, I suddenly became aware that there was a sound, gradually growing louder, not deafening, just a slight rustle, like...scales?

There was a swift movement in the darkness just behind me and I ducked instinctively, narrowly avoiding losing my head at the neck and the tops of my fingers as something whip-quick snapped against the wall with a metallic, but curiously fleshy sound, like a—a tail.

Oh crap, now I was in serious trouble.

Diving sideways as I heard the tail move again, I caught the tip of it across the cheek and shrieked, a short burst of sound, more shock than pain, though blood flowed quickly from the deep wound, flooding the left side of my face with fire. I glanced up, feeling anger flush my face under the bloody coating, and next time I heard the tail sweeping towards me I jumped into thin air, and, somehow, I caught hold of the fleshy object, which felt more like a tentacle than a tail, but with a row of sharp, metallic spikes set at regular intervals, almost like...barbed wire?

Well, whatever it was, it cut deeply into my hands even as the tentacle lashed wildly, flinging me off into the nearest wall where I slid the short distance to the floor and attempted to breathe, the wind knocked out of me completely. My eyes darted around, trying in vain to pierce the utter blackness surrounding me, but no luck until suddenly there was a creaking noise from what I presumed was the other side of the room, something heavy lifting itself from the ground.

Light shone through a mesh of cracks that resembled an air vent. Perfect! Then I checked suddenly; if I could see that air vent, where the hell was the thing sitting in front of it? A low rumbling growl sounded too close to me for comfort and I realised that though I could not see in this blackness, whatever lived here could, and it had seen me. Abandoning all pretence of caution, I broke into a flat out sprint directly across the room. Colliding with metal objects barely slowed me, though I stopped once when I hit a gurney and rolled several feet on it. Rolling off it, I barely stopped to breathe before I was off again, stumbling over metal medical equipment, or the sort that seemed like it belonged in a hospital anyway. Finally I made it to the other side of the room, the monster, whatever it was, still growling close behind me. I rattled the vent hopelessly, realising that iron would not break easily. Then suddenly, it fell apart in my hands, rusted by years of neglect, I presumed. Clambering out, I then proceeded to fall the couple of feet to the ground, thanking my lucky stars I wasn't on the second floor, which normally would have been just my luck.

I scrambled clumsily to my feet, not daring to glance behind me as I set off at a dead run. I didn't have a clue where I was, or where I was going, just away. A while later, my watch seemed to have been cracked or damaged in the fight or the ensuing flight, so I couldn't gauge how long, but I digress. Anyway, _a while later_, I stopped, figuring that maybe the monster liked the dark and hoping, _praying_ that it wasn't chasing me. If it was, I was dead, simple as that, so I ignored it. Next on the list: find Alex. Should have been my first priority really, but what with the whole escape from the ridiculously scary creature trying to kill me scenario, priorities had temporarily been rearranged so that _run the hell away from the scary monster_ had taken precedence.

I wondered where to look first, then remembered my phone. Clonking myself on the head with my free hand, I retrieved the phone from the pocket, praying I hadn't managed to damage it and that it had recovered from its little episode earlier.

I held the speed dial to call Alex and waited impatiently for the dial tone, glancing around to appraise my surroundings as I did so. Pretty much all I could see was some sort of thick, grey-white mist, like heavy cloud had settled on the ground. All of a sudden, something moved in a patch of darker grey fog, presumably where the shadow of a building wall fell on the ground. It was tall and vaguely male shaped, and the right body type for Alex. I tried to convince myself that it almost definitely wasn't him, it was probably some poor inhabitant of the town, going home and I was just going to barge in and accost them and...what was I going to do, I asked myself, ask them if they've seen my fiancé wandering around looking lost?

Stupid idea. I should definitely give up and go to the emergency services.

But a gnawing feeling in my gut told me I should go and talk to them, it might be Alex. Doubt warred with emotion and eventually, I snapped the phone closed and sprinted towards the figure, fearing they might have just walked away whilst I was debating with myself. Thank goodness, I saw the figure ahead, and now I could make out too long hair flopping over the back of a tall, gangly man's collar. Coppery jeans, though difficult to tell through the mist. And suddenly, I spotted one black fingerless glove on his left hand as it swung down by his side. It was Alex! Running towards him I reached out to touch his shoulder and then suddenly he was ahead of me in the mist again, a good twenty feet away. I blinked, rubbing my eyes beneath their smudgy lensed glasses. What the-?

But just as I made another attempt to chase the figure, he disappeared entirely.

Bringing out my phone again, I hit the call button twice and waited for the dial tone. Surprisingly, this time it rang, though the reception was terrible. I half heard Alex say, "—llo? K-? Whe- - you?"

I said slowly into the phone, "Hey Alex. It's Kat. I'm not entirely sure where I am, but you have to know, don't go into the basement of any of the buildings. The one I found myself in had something...unpleasant in it." I wondered what else to say, if he could even hear me, because all I could hear was white noise and static overriding any response he might have made. I made a sharp sound of frustration in my throat and snapped the phone closed, glancing around again in a futile attempt to permeate the fog with my laser vision.

...or not.

Sighing with frustration, I picked a direction and set off, hoping not to run into anything that would try to kill me, hoping desperately to find Alex.

* * *

Please review; the link to Leolexosdarkfold's version of these events is:

.net/s/6194381/2/Your_Rain


	3. Run

Don't worry, I'm not crazy... at least, I don't think so.

* * *

I shoved my hair back, chewing my lip as I reached what looked to be an imposing shopping mall. I tipped my head back to take in the enormous building, seeming so out of place against this town of squat, industrial type buildings.

Reasonably speaking, it couldn't have been more than three storeys tall, yet the low sitting, widespread warehouses surrounding it made it look enormous, stretching high into the sky. I shook my head, the fog must be making it look taller than it was, or else this place was messing with my vision more than usual.

I pulled the end of my sleeve over the tips of my fingers and made a futile attempt to clean the lenses of my glasses, only succeeding in smudging them further, leaving smeared, dirty marks clouding my vision. Rolling my eyes, I continued on, only realising as I pushed my way through the motionless revolving door that fog didn't smear my lenses, so why were they so filthy?

Deciding quickly to figure out that interesting, infuriating phenomenon later, I stepped forward cautiously, glancing around. The usual shopping mall type paraphernalia; litter scattered on the floor, shops looking a bit beaten up and selling the usual crappy fashion accessories and clothes for outrageous prices, graffiti everywhere.

I wondered where I was for a moment, then wondered why I was considering that anyway, seeing as though I didn't even know if I was still in Virginia. Hm...that was an interesting conundrum. I began to try and work out the possibilities of travelling through time and space, a parallel universe maybe? But nothing seemed to work here, though that hole I had fallen through should really not have gone that deep, considering we had been on the _ground floor_ of the shop at the time...

I sighed, Alex was always telling me I read too deeply into things; I was going to walk into something else nasty if I didn't pay more attention to my surroundings.

Heading towards the escalators, I wondered if I should take a quick scout around each floor, then decided it wasn't worth it; it was so devoid of human life I would hear Alex coming from a mile away, even over the low hum of the escalators; he was a little bit clumsy.

Starting up the quietly grumbling escalator, I bit my lip and chewed it, desperate not to disturb the all consuming absence of humanity which deafened and smothered me. Reaching the second floor, I glanced around. More food shops and restaurants on this level, and for a brief moment I wondered if we should stock up, we might be here for quite a while...then it hit me all over again that Alex wasn't with me, and that if I didn't look for him he might be seriously damaged, because he lived solely in his insular world inside the flat we'd rented for university and only came out when I dragged him out for the library or shopping or lectures or whatever.

I could see him now, stumbling blindly from the room where his computer resided as I made breakfast, almost falling over a wayward play station controller as he bent to kiss my cheek and then lift my left hand to press his lips to the ring he'd bought me not a month ago. I pouted almost involuntarily as I remembered the day I'd finally agreed to marry him. I'd sworn from the moment I'd turned fourteen that I would never, ever get married; my parents' marriage had been a messy warning to me and I never wanted to be trapped in that kind of painful lie, but Alex was different. I glanced down at my left hand, seeing the slim silver band on my ring finger, the brightness glittering through the coating of dust and dirt and through the holes in my ruined green and black striped gloves.

I choked on a half-giggle that sounded more like a sob as I sat on the floor a couple of feet from the escalator that led up to the third floor and buried my face in my knees, holding my left hand close.

Sinking my teeth deep into my lip, I chewed it hard to stop myself making any noise, to stop any wayward tears that might attempt to make their way to the fore in their tracks. Swallowing hard against the lump in my throat, I got to my feet, my boots squeaking slightly as their soles scraped against the floor. I froze as the noise seemed to echo deafeningly around the space. I took a breath and mentally scolded myself for being so stupid. Turning, I stepped calmly onto the escalator and raised my chin, then waited, staring blankly into space as the escalator rose steadily, ascending to the next floor.

Then I saw Alex.

He was standing blankly, staring at the roof.

"Alex!" I shouted, nearly falling off the escalator as it jerked to a halt only a few steps from the top, "Stupid piece of machinery." I muttered under my breath before sprinting up the last few steps and all but flinging myself at him.

He quirked an eyebrow as I inquired, "Why are you staring at the roof?"

"Kat! I was worried about you, are you okay? There are some strange things going on here... And not just strange, more l-" he was babbling, the way he did when he really had been worried.

I smiled, "I know, I know, I was worried about you, you're so unfamiliar with the outside world th-"

His eyes were huge as he looked at me, worry and almost—fear clear in his expression, "Okay, personal stabs out of the way, are you okay? I'm seriously worried, you know."

I frowned, "Oh, no, you know me better than that, I'm fine. I had a close call in the basement but.. anyway, are you okay?"

"But? I met our old friend, John, you know John, used to be our neighbour, anyway he's seen better days. And then there were these.. worm.. tentacle things, in the-" he looked thoughtful as he broke off.

I clenched my eyes shut tightly, the horror and fear coming up to constrict my throat, what ifs rolling through my mind, images in a grotesque slideshow, "Oh, please don't tell me you went in the basement."

Startled now, he asked, "What? No, I didn't, is there a reason why I shouldn't?"

"A big one, I told you over the phone." I was breathing fast now.

"You mean before you hung up." he joked lightly, tousling my hair.

"I didn't hang up! I couldn't hear anything." My chest was tightening now; he had probably walked right past this monster, completely unaware.

"Okay, okay, whatever you say, did you find a way out?" Changing the subject now, he could see it wasn't a good subject.

Trying to concentrate, attempting to erase the images of Alex's body, torn and bloody from the barbs on those tentacles, I looked him up and down, "Nice…nice coat. Very…uhmm…fetching. Where's your trilby?"

"At home, on the bed I think." I smiled, remembering how I simply stole it whenever he wore it anyway. And even when I wasn't borrowing it in an impromptu fashion, he simply dropped it on my head whenever he got bored wearing it.

"Shame, it'd go well." I was picturing him in dark jeans, maybe a black and white shirt and with his dusky hair actually brushed for a change.

"Kat? A way out?" he was looking at me fondly; one eyebrow rose in question, though he knew my mind would have been off on a tangent again.

"Sorry?" I blinked at him.

"A way out, have you found a way out?" he repeated the sentence not impatiently, but in a hurried way that suggested the idea of hanging around here was not a popular one with him.

"No, I haven't seen one anywhere, I was hoping you ha-" I was interrupted by glass smashing on the ground floor and I winced as the fire alarm shrieked deafeningly in our ears.

"It's not doing us any good sitting up here, the exit'll be on the ground floor. I had no idea this place had so many floors to it." Alex let go of me but left his hands at my waist, I looked up at him, hiding my emotions under a blank mask of calm, whereas the fear and anxiety he was feeling was evident in his features.

I raised an eyebrow as what he had just said sunk in, "Three is hardly that many, you know."

"Three? What do you mean?" he looked honestly confused now, a look that made him as cute as I'd ever seen him, despite the slightly…odd circumstances.

"We're on the third floor, honestly you exaggerate too much." I managed to project my voice over the fire alarm with difficulty, but with a shock, I realised that the light through the windows was dusky now; the sun had set a long time ago.

He glanced over the railing, first up at the roof, then down. I glanced over his shoulder and followed his gaze, seeing little figures stumbling about, followed by tentacles. They looked familiar. Maybe…they did seem to have spikes on them; they resembled the tentacles on that creature I had barely escaped. I looked at the small figures and wondered if they were the fire brigade or something, and then, considering the distinct lack of people I had seen so far, doubted it, especially taking into account the fact that they weren't reacting to the tentacles that darted around them, occasionally touching them.

I shuddered and looked back at Alex, who proceeded to retrieve a crumpled and dog-eared napkin from his pocket and crouch to make another futile attempt to clean my glasses. When he had finished, I smiled at him; he was so thoughtful, plus now I could see out of the corners of my glasses, albeit a little dirty, but at least I had some sort of vision now!

I heard his knees crack as he straightened up and winced in sympathy, then reached up as far as I could, using his chest to keep my balance as I pecked his cheek lightly.

"Thanks." I smiled, wrapping my arms around him and holding him close, smelling his own Alex-smell and sighing softly as the familiarity of the gesture relaxed me.

"You're welcome, you need to be able to see if we're going to get out of here anyway."

We glanced at each other and Alex took the initiative, heading down the still and silent escalator. As we reached the bottom, we both stooped to make ourselves smaller targets. It was easy for me; I was pretty short anyway, so the top of my head didn't even clear the side of the escalator wall, but Alex's six foot plus frame made it hard to stay invisible, he had to crouch and then hunch his shoulders uncomfortably. I nodded a little and he headed off down a corridor, gripping my hand tightly. Suddenly what resembled a ball of misshapen flesh with legs rushed at us. Well, it had features and that, but I did my best not to look, even as my gag reflex choked my throat as the smell rolled off it.

Alex and I rushed towards it and, practically reading each others' minds, lowered our arms as we ran, tripping the thing up so it fell flat on its...well, where a face would have been, anyway. I winced as our combined fists sank into the damp, bulging flesh of its distended stomach and barely managed to keep going as it screamed its displeasure, deafening even over the fire alarm still blaring behind us.

Now I simply ran to get away from the memory of the horror we had just come far too close to for comfort. Dragging Alex along with me, I sprinted as quickly as my legs would carry me along the corridor.

As we skidded around the corner, I dug the toes of my boots into the ground. Thankfully they held, giving me some purchase as Alex's battered old Vans betrayed him, their worn soles giving him no grip on the slick parquet flooring and sending him sliding hard into the wall. I winced in sympathy but didn't slow my pace.

But suddenly it seemed so much harder to run. I glanced behind and found that Alex seemed to be slowing down, almost _sinking_ into the floor. It sucked at his shoes like quicksand, reluctant to release him even as he reached out to try and keep his fingers entwined with my own.

I set my lips and pulled harder, trying to run as fast as I could, but the pull was so strong it threatened to dislocate something in my arm and my elbow popped and groaned in protest. I felt Alex's fingers ripped harshly from my grasp. Stumbling onwards a few steps, I finally fell as I turned the next corner.

Looking back, I saw that Alex was gone.

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own Silent Hill.

This is Alex's view on these events, and I'll upload the next chapter as soon as humanly possible.

.net/s/6194381/3/Your_Rain


	4. Dark

"It doesn't matter if you're smart, dumb, ugly, pretty... It's all the same once you're dead."

* * *

I ran my hands over the floor, trying to see if there was a trap door, though deep down I knew there wouldn't be; the floor had simply absorbed Alex and unless it wanted me to come through too, I wasn't getting to him anytime soon. My head jerked up sharply as the sound of heavy, meaty footsteps slapping against the parquet tiles echoed up the corridor towards me. Swearing under my breath, I stood as quietly as possible and resolved to find a way down to the next floor, but first I had to escape.

My life seemed to consist of two things these days: searching for Alex and running away from monsters which tried to kill me on a regular basis. What larks!

Exhaling in a long, low breath, I padded away down the corridor; not daring to break into a run until I could no longer hear the footsteps of what I assumed was the same monster we had tripped up. I hope its head falls off, I thought, with an unusual amount of venom. Finally I stopped running, and realised that I hadn't seen any stairs at all.

Although...I looked around me and found myself with shops either side of me; a clothes shop and a game shop. The latter reminded me instinctively of Alex; the disks, controllers and other gaming paraphernalia that I was constantly encouraging him _not_ to leave scattered around our normally (almost) impeccable flat.

I sighed as I remembered him waking up every weekend, dragging me out of bed in the oversized t-shirt I slept in, encouraging me until I was having fun beating zombies to death with iron bars, splattering the screen with gore on Left4Dead. And if it wasn't zombies, it was searching for gold and fighting giants and imps on one of his many quest games. When we had first moved in together I had been indescribably terrible at fighting but now I could run and fight with...if not the best, at least the middle-range fighters.

I shook my head, bringing myself down to earth with a bump as I glanced at the clothes shop to my left, then up and down the hallway. Recalling Alex's tailcoat with a smile, I darted inside the shop and scanned the interior for signs of life.

None apparent.

Looking at the clothes, I quickly selected an ankle length trench coat, black of course, but made of a tough-looing material that looked as though it would withstand a lot of running and scraping against walls, which I suspected I would be doing fairly soon. I peeked quickly at the price tag and winced, reaching into the bag at my hip for my scuffed denim purse.

I looked down, puzzled, when I realised the familiar weight at my hip was absent. Panicked, I stared down disbelievingly as I realised that the little leather pouch that was generally a permanent fixture at my hip was gone. I gasped out loud, swore and then clapped a hand over my mouth, cutting off the sound and holding my breath so I could listen for noises that suggested I was being pursued.

Again, nothing, but I refused to waste more time here.

Looking down at the coat I held loosely in my grip, I sighed and smiled ruefully; I couldn't bring myself to take it without paying. Reluctantly, I hung it neatly back on its hanger and tucked it back between the two garishly coloured coats where I had found it.

Backing out of the store, I checked the corridor bth ways again, then sprinted off in the opposite direction to the one I had come from.

Suddenly I saw a shadow ahead, the same shape as the last one, resembling Alex. Stepping forward, I reached out to put a hand on its back, but it disappeared. I wasn't totally surprised this time, but then it, or another shadow, appeared some way off. I noticed that the mist or fog had seeped back in and was rising, making it harder to see ahead of me.

Suddenly the shadows seem like they're everywhere, or that's what it seems like. I can't tell if there's more than one or if one is just darting swiftly around me, turning me first one way, then the other, leading me in circles, but I can't stop following because at any moment it might really be Alex walking away from me, not just a projected image. I hear tapping on the pipes above me, and glance up, expecting moment, but maybe it's someone walking along the floor above, rattling the pipes. But then again, maybe it's another lie, another piece of deceit.

My eyes blur behind my glasses, seeing shadowy figures that aren't there anymore. I can't tell the difference between lies and reality and it confuses me. Finally I sink to the meshed grill at my feet, exhausted. I can't comprehend if the shadows are real or not and I see them at the corners of my eyes until finally I shut them, squeezing them shut so I can't see anything. Then voices, so quiet they were barely noticeable before, start to whisper in my ears, small insidious comments that make me question why I'm here? What if Alex has found another way out and left me?

At first I try to fight, but the whispers continue until, so filled with fear that it sickens me, I transform into a ball of hatred. A typical human reaction, I realised as I struck out at the metals walls and floor, turn your fear into anger and try and hurt it, but I am out of control as I scream at thin air, "Damn you." Then louder, "Damn you all to hell! Get out of my head. I want Alex and he'll come for me! He'll come!"

Then I whisper it to myself, over and over until it becomes a mantra, "He'll come for me. He'll come, he will come, he'll come..." Until the darkness smothers me and I fall asleep or into unconsciousness; either way I slip into a dark realm where the voices are silenced and the shadows can't hurt me.

* * *

Alex's POV now, I'll upload the link when it's published.

Disclaimer: I do not own Silent Hill. Trust me, you'd know if I did...mwahahaha...


	5. Crazy

Sad times, bad times. Soon we will know, if it's for real.

* * *

I choked on the dust in the room as I woke up, glancing around me as I stretched lazily, wondering where I was now. Given that I had, I hated to admit it, _passed out_ in the middle of a corridor, chasing shadows, I wondered who had moved me...and why.

Standing swiftly, I glanced around, eyes widening as I realised I was in a claustrophobically small room with only one door. Crossing the room in three strides, I tugged at the handle, trying pushing and pulling at the door. Finally, when it transpired that the door was indeed locked, I threw my whole (meagre) weight at it, hitting it with the full force of my shoulder. Surprise surprise, I ended up with no result but a bruised shoulder. Wincing, I stepped back, looking up to see if there was anything low enough for me to grab onto to hoist myself out. Thought there were a few pipes, they were all rusted over and nothing looked sturdy enough for me to pull myself up with. Adding that to the fact that they were a good metre and a half above my head, and it looked like I was going to be stuck here a while. Checking the walls for holes with fast, furtive glances out of the corners of my eyes, I perched myself on the end of the bed I had woken up on, hoisting my feet up in case the floor tried to same trick as it had pulled on Alex, sucking me straight through. Though to be honest, that wouldn't be a bad way of getting out of here. Reluctantly, I dropped my feet back to the floor and sat back, wondering what to do and wishing I had my bag so I could try calling Alex again.

Typical klutzy me, I'd most likely dropped it whilst running away from the monster or let go of it while I was trying to haul Alex out of the floor. Well, nothing to be done about it now. If I was still alive later, I could maybe replace some of the stuff I had in it. But I couldn't really ever replace the bag. It had been an engagement present from Alex, and he'd given it to me with the ring inside, in a tiny box, so small I almost didn't see it at first, and then I'd had to sit down when I finally had discovered it.

For now though, I considered my present situation and shook my head; pretty hopeless to be honest. Shoving my fringe out of my eyes, I flopped down on the bed on my back, regretting it instantly, as a cloud of dust rose from it and set my eyes streaming and my nose running. Coughing, I bounced upright again and scrubbed at my face with my sleeve, barely registering the deafening sound as the door creaked open, too intent of ridding myself of the invasive dust. When I did finally look up, it was to see an older man, maybe around thirty or so, pointing a shotgun and leering at me from behind the double barrels. I rolled my eyes; I was in a place full of monsters that tried to kill people and the guy was pointing the shotgun at harmless little me! I opened my mouth to speak but he got there first, striding towards me and planting a kiss full on my mouth. I tried to move back, desperately attempting to get away, just wishing that I could punch him as hard as physically possible and then run, but the gun prevented that. So I just stood absolutely still and endured it, thinking of Alex. When he finally stepped back, he wiped his mouth with one dirty sleeve – did I mention that he wasn't particularly well-groomed and vaguely resembled a tramp that had been living in a dumpster for the past several months – and shoved me back with a grin that revealed yellowy-black teeth. Bile rose in my throat as I glared at him, mustering as much contempt as I could manage whilst at the same time trying not to give him an excuse to hit me. He grinned for a few seconds more before walking out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Something clicked in my head and I launched myself across the room, scrabbling to open the door before he locked it. But it was futile. He must have heard my hasty footsteps as the lock snicked into place just as I reached the door. Knowing the ineffectiveness of my attempts from before, I gave the door one resounding kick and turned back to the lumpy mattress.

It felt like I was there for hours, but it could have been minutes, or it could have been days. I drifted in and out of consciousness, fretting about Alex, no longer worried about my own survival. I lay prone on the mattress, ignoring the pervasive smell of sour milk that invaded my nostrils. Then finally, I heard footsteps approaching the door, sounding unsure and a little hesitant, then more eager as they came closer. Leaping off the bed, I backed up against the wall, ready to launch myself at the man and fight my way past him to get out if necessary. I could feel my cheeks flushing; the room was sealed and I was using up air back here, breathing more heavily as I tried to prepare myself to fight.

Then the door swung open slowly, tentatively, and I was more relieved that could be articulated as Alex's worried face came into view. Then I saw the man behind him, raising the gun in a way that was anything but friendly, and opened my mouth to yell, "Alex, look ou-!"

But I was cut short as the butt of the gun came down with a sickening crunch on the back of Alex's head. Throwing myself across the room, I barely caught my fiancé's limp body as he fell, unable to stop himself and nearly unconscious, flashlight clacking to the floor and going dark, even as the door slammed once again, but this time, the sound of the lock didn't come. Instead, there was a pounding on the door. The man's voice, high-pitched with fear, then wordless shrieks of agony. The noises kept going, even as I looked into Alex's eyes and said to him, not knowing if he could hear me, "He's gone."

His eyes slid closed and I half-dragged, half-carried his limp body over to the mattress and sat, listening to the sticky sounds and the occasional scream floating in from outside the door, and waiting. As I picked up the flashlight and checked to make sure the batteries were in place, I realised that the other object Alex had dropped, aside from his flashlight, had been my bag. Eyes huge, I grabbed it and then turned to look at his unconscious body lying on the bed. Kissing him on the forehead, my eyes filled as I looked inside, realising what other important things I had almost lost; not just the obvious things like my wallet and my phone, but the smaller things, like the photo of us in the clear pocket of my wallet, smiling crazily as we waved to the photographer, my best friend, from the top of a Ferris wheel somewhere in Ireland.

Finally, the sounds outside the door ceased, and gradually, I began to wonder if the creatures were capable of opening doors and, if not, whether Alex and I were about to be devoured in the same way the second we walked out of that door. About an hour later, by Alex's watch, his eyes flickered open and he sat up sharply, yelling, "Bastard!" at the empty room, and immediately hitting his head on a loose piece of metal, which then fell off the wall to the floor with a clatter. I shook my head and reached out to stroke his hair back off his forehead, examining the bruise already forming as best I could in the uncertain lighting. I winced; that would hurt later.

"Are you okay?" I asked, voice rough from not speaking for so long.

"Fine.. nothing I'm not used to already." I nodded behind him where he couldn't see me. We were both so clumsy I was surprised we had survived this long together.

I chewed my lip and asked, just to be sure, even though I knew he'd put on a brave face, "Well, that's true enough but.. really.. are you?"

"I'm fine, really," his voice cracked as he stood, swaying unsteadily, wincing and dropping his head a little, even as he reassured me, "Perfectly.. alright..." I shook my head, no he wasn't, but he'd never admit it.

"Where... where are we?" he sounded shaky, but if he wanted to put on a brave face, I'd let him...until he fainted or passed out or something again, anyway.

"You don't remember?" I wondered how hard he really had hit his head and began to worry even more.

"Funnily enough, no, all I remember was walking into the back room and being hit... oh." His expression cleared and I rolled my eyes with a smile.

"Yup, still in here."

"Ah." He couldn't find much else to say to that really.

"Mhmm."

He was quiet for a moment, scanning the room, eyes passing over the door and not even seeming to notice it. I raised an eyebrow, "What're you doing?"

"Looking for a way out, I don't know about you but I'm not mad keen on sitting around here, sorry." He looked almost pityingly back at me and I nodded slowly, right then.

Walking over to the door, I turned the handle and opened it, bowing low and presenting the open doorway with a quiet mumble of, "This way, your majesty."

He sniffed, "...I was going to try that next."

"Okay... yeah... sure, let's go?" I nodded, ushering him through first, anxious about the way Alex swayed shakily, trying to duck under the doorway though it was a foot above his head, but he sounded alright when he called, "Whatever happened to ladies first?"

"I don't see why we can't have this one exception." I smiled as we sank into our usual banter, but the smile slid straight off my face when we walked out straight into puddles of cloying brown blood, its scent sticking in my nose and making me feel sick.

"I guess he didn't have time to lock the door, huh?" Alex's voice was suffused with guilt as he leaned over the counter to look at something on the other side. Walking up quietly behind him, tiptoeing around the puddles of blood and—other things, I glanced over his shoulder to see the shotgun lying under the grasp of a barbed wire tentacle. I read his face and shook my head mutely as he glanced at me; that crooked grin that I loved so much lifting one side of his lips.

With that, I knew he was going to do it anyway, so I stepped back and just watched as he grabbed a nearby wire coat hanger, dropping the dress that hung on it carelessly to the floor and then unbending it from its shape until he had a long, slightly twisted stake, or a spear.

For a moment, he stared at me, and I asked curiously, slightly worried, "What?"

"Nothing, nothing." He returned to his work and, not wanting to watch, I busied myself by picking up the dress and shaking it out, before folding it loosely and draping it over a nearby rack of other clothes. When I looked back, Alex had leapt silently over the counter and had his face right next to the hold in the wall that the tentacle seemed to have sprouted from. I glanced away for a moment, and then my eyes snapped to Alex as an alien shrieking sounded, presumably where he had stabbed the tentacle with the coat hanger. He leapt back to my side of the counter, holding the gun triumphantly even as tentacles flooded from the hole, aiming at them with, as far as I could see, one eye closed, "Pew... pew p-"

I smiled; typical Alex. He liked playing video games but I doubted he'd so much as held an air rifle, let alone a heavy double barrelled shotgun. I hated to interrupt his fun, but, "What are you doing?"

Glancing over his shoulder at me, he grinned irresistibly and said, "Practising." With the cutest expression on his face, half innocent, half teasing. Surprise forced a half laugh from me, before I grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the shop, glancing back only once to check that the safety catch was on the gun so he couldn't accidentally shoot either of us.

We kept running and I led the way to where I vaguely recollected the front door to be. We found ourselves on the first floor, but I despaired of ever actually getting out; the creatures seemed to be awake, and something (or many somethings) with metal limbs could be heard echoing around the otherwise silent mall. Setting my teeth, I ran straight, dragging Alex by the hand, hearing his heavy panting as the exertion took its toll on my gaming fiancé, but ignoring it, determined to get us both out of here if not unscathed, at least alive.

I could feel the slight tightening in my own chest that suggested that if I didn't want to end up collapsing then I'd better not run for too much longer. But I ignored that too, realising that if I stopped to rest now that I might never start again. I could feel it when Alex started to flag seriously, just as we reached the top of the escalator, so I let go of his hand just for a second so he could catch his breath; I did not under any circumstances want him falling down the sharp edged metal stairs. I ran ahead, hoping to catch a breather at the bottom but at the bottom of the stairs I looked back and Alex was still only partway down. Something brushed past me and I whirled, expecting to be facing something horrific, but it must have been a gust of wind, I decided, as there was nothing there. Running out of the mall doors, I glanced around to ascertain that there was nothing coming straight at the doors, then looked back once again for Alex... to open my mouth in horror, for all I could see was him trying to fight off a swarm of...somethings. Somehow, he managed to burst through the group and run down the escalator, but I could see his legs bending crazily and the strain was showing on his face as his cheeks flushed an unhealthy shade somewhere between scarlet and puce.

I glanced around me to make sure nothing was sneaking up on me but suddenly all I could see was trees and vegetation seeming to close in on me and suddenly it was very quiet. Deathly quiet, I called it inside my head, not daring to break the silence with my voice, until suddenly a hysterical laugh bubbled up from inside me and burst from my lips. Well, not a laugh, a hiccoughing, sobbing, giggle, sounding as though it was balanced on the edge of sanity.

* * *

Disclaimer: It's late, I know, but I still don't own SH and to be honest I would rather face the Silent Hill monsters than do all the work for college.

Link to Alex's POV:

**.net/s/6194381/5/**


	6. Scream

Only the dark one opens and closes the door to Silent Hill.

* * *

I whirled around and lost it completely, "Alex!"

I tried to scream it, to project my voice through the suffocating silence, but my voice choked in my throat, coming out only in a harsh exhalation of air, swallowed in an instant by the looming trees. The night was closing in quickly now, the sun dipping below the horizon to shroud the already dim skyline in a violet haze where shapes appeared in the deep shadows and the silence of the night and the darkness pressed in on me, stifling, yet the temperature was still rising, where it had been cold and foggy moments before in the mist-smothered city, now it was muggy and humid and I was sweating.

I glanced around; there was no sign of life, which was both a curse and a blessing, as fit meant that though there were no flesh-devouring monsters about to attack in the immediate vicinity, on the flipside, Alex was nowhere near either. I nodded appreciatively as I absorbed theses facts, before delving into my pocket to retrieve Alex's flashlight, though a stab of guilt hit me hard as I pressed the switch on and the lamp flickered. I prayed for a moment before it settled into a dim but steady glow, lighting up my surrounding area. It turned out I was in a clearing, surrounded by a circle of strange, dark leaved trees. Being the daughter of a botanist, I knew about trees, but the only trees I could think of that had dark purple, almost black leaves were beech, and the leaves were completely the wrong shape.

All thoughts of botany disappeared as I groped in the once-again empty space at my hip. My bag, gone, again!

"Damnit!" I shouted, and this time I did yell it at the top of my voice, putting all my anger, fear and confusion into it and feeling a wave of satisfaction wash over me as it echoed around the treetops. That was when I realised I was in serious trouble. The shadows were moving. They weren't moving in the hazy, indistinct way that had teased me earlier, and they weren't talking, but they were definitely growing, becoming defined shapes even as I watched, and those shapes were horrific. Teeth and claws became visible, bloodied skin hanging in strips, sharp, jagged metal limbs. It seemed this hellhole was determined that I was not to escape again, because they seemed to have mustered an entire army to catch little, mostly helpless me. Slowly, the shadow army advanced, feeding on my fear, sucking it inside themselves and seeming to sigh with satisfaction, growing ever larger even as I watched. That was when I suddenly realised that they weren't going to attack, that they wanted this to be a game of cat and mouse, they wanted me to run. I refrained from knocking myself on the head; that was the stupidest idea I'd had all day, because these creatures were basically walking corpses and how much brain power did a zombie have? Not much, I was betting, their neurons would have all fallen apart or rotted or whatever, hence, something was controlling them. Great, now, not only did I have to deal with the concept of people I had possibly passed in the shopping centre trying to kill me from beyond the grave (or after crawling out of it, I didn't know) but I had to deal with their Great Mother as well. My day was going so well. All I needed now was for Alex to turn up as one of those zombie-things and kill me with a new sharp 'n' shiny metal hand. _I was not going to think about that possibility_, I decided firmly.

I pulled myself together and tipped my head to one side, addressing the shadows, "Alright you lot, you want to play cat and mouse? Let's see who's cat then, shall we?"

Turning on my heel, I flung myself through the ranks of shadows into the forest beyond and, quite literally, ran for my life. I could hear things crashing into bushes and trees around me, but no human sounds, just grunts and thick, squelching sounds as pieces of skin, and hopefully that was all, were ripped off in the undergrowth and caught on thorny vines. The thorns wrenched as my t-shirt, catching and tearing it in hundreds of places, but I paid the tiny cuts no heed; they would be nothing to the inevitable punishment I would feel if I was caught.

After what felt like forever crashing through purple leaved trees, I stopped to breathe and listened for sounds of pursuit. There was no noise other than my own heartbeat thudding in my ears and my laboured breathing. Then, distantly, I heard soft footsteps, light, and definitely human, because I could hear soft breathing, obviously trying to be discreet, which the monsters were not. I turned on my toes and crouched against a thick tree-trunk, holding my breath and listening for movement. That was when I heard the moaning. Moaning, crying, sobbing, small sounds of complete and unutterable agony and then…my name, "Kat. Kat, I – I need you."

It sounded like Alex, but somehow it sounded wrong. I don't know what it was, but my stomach gave a squeezing twist, signalling that there was something wrong. Gut instinct. I shook my head very slightly, I should by all rights go and see if it was Alex, if there was even the slightest chance, but no. Crawling away on hands and knees, I waited till I could no longer hear the whispers and then started running again.

I ran flat out, forgetting all the techniques, no semblance of posture or respectability, just the flat out sprint of a hunted prey. When I was so exhausted that I could no longer breathe properly, and my breath was coming in harsh gasps with wheezy edges, I found a tree with branches low enough that I thought I would be able to reach and hauled myself up until I found a sturdy branch that would hold my weight. Unbuckling my belt, I was about to wrap it around the tree and around my waist so I could take a cat-nap to regain some strength when there was a strange noise from above me. I glanced up fearfully—and let out a full-scale, embarrassingly feminine shriek.

There was a metal and flesh combination creature crouching about a foot above my head, liquids of various descriptions dripping down its bare chest and out of its flap-of-skin mouth, metal-claw legs holding it clumsily in position. But it didn't matter how clumsy it was; it didn't need precision to strike at me with one of those long metal knives. Giving up any hope of climbing down quickly, I saw it raise a claw and jumped. Even so, I caught the knife across the back, tearing the fabric of my abused t-shirt and taking what felt like a good chunk of skin with it. I grunted in pain and tried to catch branches to slow my fall. I finally managed to secure my position on a chunky branch pretty much at the bottom of the tree, and hopped off to the ground. Without looking up, I started to run again, but I was too exhausted, and I fell to my knees, bloody and in pain. Holding my hands up in a gesture of surrender, I shouted to whoever was listening, "Just finish it, kill me, or take me to Alex, or whatever. Just end it."

And suddenly the horrific tree-climbing creature (which I now nicknamed spider-zombie) was there in front of me, slinging me over its shoulder and carrying me off in a bumpy, painful journey to darkness unknown.

Hours later, as dawn pierced the sky, or at least, the grey mist lightened to white-grey rather than purple-black shadows, we arrived at our destination and I was dropped unceremoniously to a concrete floor. Deciding it would be good manners not to lie bleeding on the floor, I sat up stiffly; my muscles had all cramped up on the journey here, and looked around. Warehouse, I decided, looking at the corrugated iron ceiling, the strong concrete walls. Looking around, I saw that the spider-zombie had wandered off (or rather limped, its metal legs didn't seem to respond all that well to human nerve impulses) and that there was a woman standing in front of me. She looked worn, exhausted, but still strong, with fire in her eyes.

"So, you're the one that woke them all up, huh? You and your boyfriend."

"Fiancé." I corrected automatically, wondering what she meant by 'woke them all up' and then considering who 'they' were. The monsters, presumably, but how had I woken them all up?

"So, you want to tell me why you're here?"

I shook my head muzzily, confused, "I don't know. I thought you could maybe tell me. I fell through a hole in the wall…" I trailed off as her eyes widened.

"Well, that means yours and my realities have merged, we're being chased by the same thing, and punished for the same crime?"

"What—crime?"

She shrugged, "Well, my ex and I figured that I was being punished because he disappeared a bit after I got here, and just hasn't turned up since. I guess he's dead."

She didn't sound like she cared very much about that, I noted, but then maybe since he was her ex she wasn't required to. "So what was your crime?" I asked.

She shrugged, "Which one? I cheated on Robbie, I stole his stuff, I had sex for money."

My eyes must have been round as marbles, because she laughed bitterly, "Yeah, guess you've never done any of that stuff, huh? "Well, life was hard, I had no choice. So, your fiancé done any of that stuff, if it wasn't you?"

I shook my head mutely.

"Well, that's why we're here, punishment, or tests of loyalty or something. I dunno." She had a Southern accent, I noticed at random.

She looked dark, "Well, you might be a lucky one then, you might get out alive. Whatever, you're too soft, you'll die soon anyway. I get ones like you sometimes, ones who just fall into my prison and meet me, and they always die. I'm the canny one, the one who survived."

I thought for a moment, "If Alex dies then I don't want to survive." I stated quietly.

She laughed, "You will, darlin', you will. It's surprising how much the human body wants to stay alive when it's faced with certain death. That's what this is, certain death, we just haven't got to it yet." Her laugh sounded forced and hysterical now, and it hurt my head. I just wanted to go to sleep. So I did. She was still laughing, and it swirled around my head, which I laid on my arms as my eyes closed once again.

* * *

I'll upload Alex's POV when he's written and posted it.

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Silent Hill. I'm also sorry this chapter's so late :3


	7. Sleep

When God is gone and the Devil takes hold, who will have mercy on your soul?

* * *

I woke up groggily, unsure whether the screams I was hearing were reality or still just a twisted remnant of the horrific dreams floating around in my head. Deciding that reality would be too painful, I curled up on my side and fell back to sleep again. In my dream, someone...or something was talking. Sounded male, "She's still not woken up then?"

A child's voice, female now, "No, I think she's dead. Or at least in a coma."

"Should we tell the boy?" The male voice mused.

Right then, before the girl could answer, sleep drifted in on a wave of unconsciousness and took me under in a drowning sea of red and black smears. Monsters chased me and I tried to run, but I couldn't, and then visions of a small child with dark hair and darker eyes, dressed in a purely white dress came. Her feet were bare and she was talking, or at least her lips were moving. A series of metal screeches and small cries of human agony disguised under the metal sounds followed when her lips closed. Then she seemed to turn and look directly at me. She smiled.

The scene changed, the girl was gone. Blood stained white walls. It looked like a surgery or a morgue, blank walls, no art to break up the sheets of pure, pale non-colour. I seemed to be part of the room, with no form at all. A woman walked in, dark hair cut short, slicked back over her head in a severe cut that left her pale, sculpted facial structure bare. Her face was pale except for a splash of crimson lipstick which stood stark against her features like the smears of blood across the white, white walls. The woman looked around, her expression blankly unreadable. She looked down and my eyes followed hers.

On the floor lay Alex.

At first glance he looked perfectly fine, but when I looked closer I could see the pallor in his skin, the sweaty hair sticking to his forehead, and I saw his chest rising and falling too quickly.

Then he stopped breathing altogether.

Something moved in his chest, _under _his skin. Like something out of _Alien _his chest was shredded by claws and teeth, but instead of blood spurting out from the main arteries as the skin and shirt shredded, blood simply seeped out, the pool of dark liquid spreading too slowly. It meant he had lost too much blood already, that he was dying...and the woman laughed. A laugh like the pain of razor blades slicing into your skin, sharp, cold, piercing...never-ending.

I woke up with a start and did my best to muffle a shriek.

Looking around frantically, I ascertained that I was lying on some sort of cot in a small room, once again with but one door, most probably locked. I sat up too quickly and tried immediately to stand, a bad combination with a worse result. As my knees hit the concrete floor I gritted my teeth to smother a grunt of pain. I held my head, trying to regain my equilibrium as quickly as possible. The fact that this process took some time bothered me; how long had I been out to have such a strong reaction?

Finally my head stopped spinning, and I pushed myself to my feet cautiously, using the wobbly bed frame for support as I staggered awkwardly towards the door. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and winced as my sleeve caught edge of a scab, ripping it off. Wondering what it was from, I pulled and pushed at the heavy handle. I stopped, cocking my head, as a sound registered.

Footsteps on metal.

Rushing back to the cot, I flung myself on it and tried to steady my breathing, allowing it to settle into a slow, steady rhythm as the door was opened with no particular caution, as far as a could tell. That, more than anything else, said that I had been unconscious far longer than was settling. That and the dryness of my mouth and the cracked, parched quality of my lips. As the door began to close, I judged the distance and hoped the person was turned away as I sprang off the bed and flung myself through the rapidly narrowing gap of the door. Sliding through at the last possible second, I heard a very human, male voice shout wordlessly after me as I threw myself haphazardly along a hallway, ignoring the rusty quality of the floors, walls and everything else that I passed.

When I was sure the male who had opened the door wouldn't catch me, I slowed a little and listened. Voices came from a room ahead, and I slowed further, tiptoeing forwards. But then running footsteps sounded on the flight of stairs I had just ascended. Quickly and silently, I darted into the next room, realising that the place around me strongly resembled a hospital I had visited only once, when my mother was there. Where she had died.

Shaking my head to clear it of the horrific memories associated with hospitals, I listened hard, trying to ignore the tears tracking down my cheeks. I couldn't say why they were there and I would never acknowledge them until I could clarify the reasoning associated with my mother, hospitals and tears. Shouting from the next room and then the unmistakable sound of a blade and a series of horrendous noises, thick, meaty sounds that mean something that should never see the light of day outside of a human body has been shredded mercilessly.

I waited until the door of the next room creaked open and closed again, waited a few minutes extra for good measure and then attempted to open the door without bringing every creepy monster in the place running. No luck, it did creak, but my head was not lopped off by a metal limb when I stuck it out to check for danger, and that was good enough for me.

Sliding through into the next room, I glanced around at the gore, blood and thicker bits scattered liberally over the floor and walls and pulled a face; how untidy. Suddenly there was a creak behind me. Since I was facing the door, I whirled around until I came face to face with a closet which looked vaguely like a storage closet rather than one you'd hang clothes in. Casting around for a weapon, I spotted a shotgun in the centre of a pool of organs which, by the smell alone, must have been part of the digestive system. More intent on saving my life than being nauseous, I plunged my left hand into the pile and swung the barrel round to point at my possible opponent, spattering it, no _him_, with gore and blinding him momentarily, which gave me a chance to balance it against my shoulder and hiss threateningly, "Hands up now, or I swear to God I'll spatter your brains on that wall."

Hands rose, and then a voice said, "Hey Kat. How've you been?"

Alex.

With a stifled sob I flung myself at him, dropping the bloody shotgun, ignoring the fact that we were both covered in gore, that we were in the middle of a life-threatening situation, only caring that he was alive, that that dream was nothing more than a dream.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Alien, O Death or Silent Hill.

Link to Alex's POV: .net/s/6194381/7/

Also, it would be lovely if people reviewed, honestly, I don't bite and flames don't particularly bother me :3

I will update soon...


	8. Lies

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

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Alex and I were together again. I couldn't get over it and refused point-blank to let go of his hand, even when he gently pointed out, "Hey hon, I'm not going to disappear, and if we end up running away again, holding hands is going to slow us down."

My reply was a curt shake of the head, even as my eyes searched around, trying to permeate the filth and dust that seemed to be floating around in the air and smearing my glasses. Eventually I relented, but only released his hand long enough to clean my glasses on a handkerchief from my pocket.

Flipping my hair back, I edged round a corner, holding Alex's hand to keep him from running round it without looking. The second my eyes cleared the corner, I ripping my head back so fast I heard something crack. Putting my finger to my lips and catching Alex's eye, I indicated to back away with all swiftness and caution.

He looked at me questioningly but I shook my head and waited till we had found a flight of stairs, descended them and were well along a corridor with no visible sudden turns, but, since this was a hospital, the doors were unavoidable. Slipping inside a nearby door, we checked we were alone and then I whispered hoarsely, "Okay, now what do we do?"

Alex replied, "Get out of here, of course, but we can't lose each other again."

I rolled my eyes, "No kidding, Sherlock. So what, we assume there are scary monsters covering every exit and try and find a les conventional method of exit?"

He ran his hand through his hair, looking unhappy about it, "Yeah, I guess so."

I had a thought, "Look, whatever's keeping us here, whatever brought us here, doesn't it have a purpose?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I've been thinking about that. Maybe something we did in a past life? Because I don't know about you, but I haven't killed anyone in this life..." He trailed off with a nervous laugh, probably at the sight of my stricken face, "What is it, Kitty-Kat?"

I tried to regain my composure "N-nothing, it's all fine."

But I knew I had seen something then, because it flickered into view again, just as the electricity somehow grated into life. I wasn't sure if it was a mirage or something else, but something with a human shape was lying, motionless, on a gurney just across from us. As the lights flickered on and off, blurring my already scanty vision, I saw flashes of the woman I had met before, tall and brunette. With a start, I realised that the scruffy woman I had met in reality and the sleek, crop-haired woman in the white room in my dream were one and the same. Insanity had flickered in both of their eyes, but majesty was there in her posture.

And now she lay as still as a corpse, covered up to the neck with a green regulation hospital blanket. Her hair was longer now, flowing down to her shoulders with a slight wave to it. The pale, flawless skin was scarred now, tanned or burned slightly darker than it had been, or maybe it was just mud. I approached her delicately, disregarding Alex's question, "Hey Kat? Are you alright?"

Shoving my hair back, I reached out a hand as though to stroke her cheek but another hand gripped mine, seeming to appear out of the darkness. A hand even smaller than my own, pale, with creamy white skin, gripping my wrist with unnatural strength even as the electricity flickered off again. I yelled, "Alex! A little help with invisible psycho-woman!"

A gasp in the darkness, low and rough, definitely masculine. Alex.

I whirled around, surprising the thing that had grabbed me, apparently, because the arm released me from its crushing grip. Rushing blindly through the dark, I collided with another body and shrieked, "Alex?"

Something was right next to me, breathing in my ear, its fetid breath making me reel. When the echoes of my cry had silenced, one word was spoken, directly in my ear, "No."

I spun around, completely disoriented, and ran headlong into a wall. "Ow."

I fell back on my butt, hitting the floor hard, and moaned, trying to stand as my head world and silence filled my ears in the darkness. Oblivion surrounded me, smothered me. I stood up sharply and reached my hands out until they hit a wall, using it to guide me until I found an indent in the wall, which, on closer inspection, let a draft through, cooling my hands even as I felt around for the handle. Something else gripped the handle just as I touched it, a warm hand, sweaty and sticky with something thicker than blood. Something that screamed as I wrenched the door open with all my strength, and scuttled away with a spider-like, definitely _not human_ gait, as the light hit it.

Daylight filled the room, but not the bright, Virginia sunlight I was used to, or even the cold but bright wintry sunlight of England. It was a miserable light, the air warm but somehow with a biting feel of danger as ash flakes floated uselessly around me. There was no pattern in them, no point. I stared into the air blankly, the flakes hypnotizing me. I began to walk, barely conscious of where I was going, and the ground beneath my feet felt transparent. I felt faint and weightless. And then my thoughts began to fade, disappearing altogether as a voice welcomed me into the darkness that my white world dissolved into.

An image of a dark haired girl dressed all in white flowed into being before my eyes.

Her eyes seemed to expand, filling the white background with darkness that I fell into, pools of onyx growing until my world was black.

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I'll update Alex's POV when it's written

Thanks everyone and please review ^-^


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